Child physical punishment,parenting, and school readiness

This study explored how physical punishment (PP) and other parenting approaches may predict school readiness outcomes. By using the Canada‐wide representative data, 5,513 children were followed over a 2‐year period. Caregivers reported on their use of PP and other parenting approaches (i.e., literacy and learning activities and other disciplinary practices) when children were 2–3 years old, whereas school readiness was measured at 4–5 years using interviewer‐administered tests of number competence and receptive vocabulary skills. Analyses controlled for PP use at 4–5 years, child externalizing behaviours, and various sociodemographics. Results indicated that PP does not directly predict school readiness; however, the effect of PP was moderated by other parenting approaches. Children's receptive vocabulary was weaker if caregivers used PP together with less frequent explaining/teaching regarding problem behaviour, or PP with less frequent engagement in literacy and learning activities. Children had weaker number competence when PP co‐occurred with more frequent psychological aggression (e.g., yelling/scolding). Results suggest that PP hinders children's school readiness when used alongside other parenting approaches, which reflects the reality of parenting (i.e., PP does not occur in isolation). Findings support early education efforts aimed at promoting early learning and literacy opportunities, as well as positive disciplinary strategies that do not involve PP.

Highlights

• We explored how physical punishment and other parenting approaches may predict school readiness outcomes using Canada‐wide data.
• Results provided little evidence of positive effects of physical punishment on school readiness across a range of parenting and disciplinary contexts.
• To promote school readiness, early education efforts should promote early learning opportunities and positive disciplinary strategies that do not involve physical punishment.

     

Transformational and Transactional Leadership and Followers’ Achievement Goals

Purpose

Achievement goals, or the standards of competence employees pursue in their work, have far-reaching consequences for employee and organizational functioning. In the current research, we investigated whether employees’ achievement goals can be predicted from their supervisor’s leadership style.

Design/Methodology/Approach

A multilevel study was conducted in which followers of 120 organizational leaders completed measures of their leader’s transformational leadership (focusing on individual needs and abilities, on intellectual development, and on a common team mission), transactional leadership (focusing on monitoring and achievement-related rewards), and their own mastery goals (aimed at learning, developing, and mastering job-relevant skills), and performance goals (aimed at doing better than others).

Findings

Group-level transformational leadership predicted followers’ mastery goals, whereas group-level transactional leadership predicted followers’ performance goals. Within-group differences in transformational leadership also predicted mastery goals.

Implications

These findings suggest that leadership style plays an important role in the achievement goals followers adopt. Organizations may promote transactional leadership in contexts requiring that employees outperform others. In contrast, in contexts requiring learning and development, organizations may promote transformational leadership.

Originality/Value

This research is the first to examine the relationships between leadership styles and specific follower goals, and the first to highlight the role of leadership as a social variable involved in employees’ adoption of achievement goals.     

The Impact of Organizational Factors on Psychological Needs and Their Relations with Well-Being

Purpose

The purpose of the present research was to examine the relationships between perceived organizational support, perceptions of supervisor’s interpersonal style, psychological need satisfaction and need thwarting, and hedonic and eudaemonic well-being.

Design/Methodology/Approach

In Study 1 (n?=?468), we tested a model in which workers’ perceived organizational support and their perceptions of their supervisor autonomy support independently predicted satisfaction of the workers’ needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, which in turn predicted aspects of hedonic and eudaemonic well-being. In Study 2 (n?=?650), workers’ perceptions of supervisor controlling behaviors and need thwarting were added to the hypothesized model tested in Study 1. Scales of work satisfaction and positive affect were used to assess hedonic well-being, and a scale of psychological well-being was used to assess eudaemonic well-being.

Findings

Perceived organizational support and supervisors’ interpersonal style related to basic need satisfaction (Studies 1 and 2) and need thwarting (Study 2). In turn, need satisfaction predicted higher levels of hedonic and eudaemonic well-being, while need thwarting was negatively associated with hedonic and eudaemonic well-being.

Implications

The present results underscore the importance of understanding the mechanisms through which organizations and managers related to workers’ hedonic and eudaemonic well-being.

Originality/Value

This is the first research to provide evidence for the mediating role of need satisfaction and need thwarting in the relationships between perceived organizational support, perceptions of supervisor’s interpersonal style, and hedonic and eudaemonic well-being. The present results were obtained in two samples of employees from various small to large companies.     

The relationship between numerical mapping abilities,maths achievement and socioeconomic status in 4- and 5-year-old children

Background

Early numeracy skills are associated with academic and life-long outcomes. Children from low-income backgrounds typically have poorer maths outcomes, and their learning can already be disadvantaged before they begin formal schooling. Understanding the relationship between the skills that support the acquisition of early maths skills could scaffold maths learning and improve life chances.

Aims

The present study aimed to examine how the ability of children from different SES backgrounds to map between symbolic (Arabic numerals) and non-symbolic (dot arrays) at two difficulty ratios related to their math performance.

Sample

Participants were 398 children in their first year of formal schooling (Mean age = 60 months), and 75% were from low SES backgrounds.

Method

The children completed symbolic to non-symbolic and non-symbolic to symbolic mapping tasks at two difficulty ratios (1:2; 2:3) plus standardized maths tasks.

Results

The results showed that all the children performed better for symbolic to non-symbolic mapping and when the ratio was 1:2. Mapping task performance was significantly related to maths task achievement, but low-SES children showed significantly lower performance on all tasks.

Conclusion

The results suggest that mapping tasks could be a useful way to identify children at risk of low maths attainment.     

Being Successful in a Creative Profession: The Role of Innovative Cognitive Style, Self-Regulation, and Self-Efficacy

Purpose  

The purpose of this study was to test a model that proposes that innovative cognitive style and self-regulation (setting priorities, planning work activities, and monitoring time and task progress) are related to the self-reported success of architects. We investigated two aspects of the success: as designers and as business people. To this end, we examined the mediating role of self-efficacy in these relationships.     

Act Expediently,with Autonomy: Vicarious Learning,Empowered Behaviors,and Performance

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to investigate how organizations can best facilitate an empowered workforce that makes autonomous decisions and acts expediently, which the literature on high performing organizations posits will increase the likelihood of sustained performance and retaining competitive advantages. We introduce a novel mechanism for encouraging such behaviors and pursuant outcomes: vicarious learning from a supervisor who demonstrates autonomy and expediency.

Design/Methodology/Approach

We drew experimental data from a sample of participants who underwent a managerial simulation, and used these data to investigate relationships between the vicarious learning of empowered behaviors and individual task performance (n = 100).

Findings

Results indicate that when supervisors behave with autonomy and expediency this both increases the extent to which individuals behave similarly, and is associated with enhanced individual performance. Further, we find that expedient behavior fully mediates the relationship between empowered supervisor behavior and performance.

Implications

Findings show that supervisors need not necessarily engage directly in empowering others. Rather, by modeling behaviors, supervisors can craft a context where employees may act with autonomy and efficiency. This provides an opportunity for empowerment that is both actionable and cost-effective.

Originality/Value

This is the first study to consider empowerment as a managerial phenomenon that can be vicariously learned, integrating theories of social learning and empowerment, and extending existing empowerment constructs (including psychological and structural) to develop an indirect, yet potent means of encouraging empowered behavior.

     

The Associations between Ethical Organizational Culture,Burnout, and Engagement: A Multilevel Study

Purpose

Ethical culture is a specific form of organizational culture (including values and systems that can promote ethical behavior), and as such a socially constructed phenomenon. However, no previous studies have investigated the degree to which employees’ perceptions of their organization’s ethical culture are shared within work units (departments), which was the first aim of this study. In addition, we studied the associations between ethical culture and occupational well-being (i.e., burnout and work engagement) at both the individual and work-unit levels.

Design/Methodology/Approach

The questionnaire data were gathered from 2,146 respondents with various occupations in 245 different work units in one public sector organization. Ethical organizational culture was measured with the corporate ethical virtues scale, including eight sub-dimensions.

Findings

Multilevel structural equation modeling showed that 12–27 % of the total variance regarding the dimensions of ethical culture was explained by departmental homogeneity (shared experiences). At both the within and between levels, higher perceptions of ethical culture associated with lower burnout and higher work engagement.

Implications

The results suggest that organizations should support ethical practices at the work-unit level, to enhance work engagement, and should also pay special attention to work units with a low ethical culture because these work environments can expose employees to burnout.

Originality/Value

This is one of the first studies to find evidence of an association between shared experiences of ethical culture and collective feelings of both burnout and work engagement.

     

Reflection Toward Creativity: Team Reflexivity as a Linking Mechanism Between Team Goal Orientation and Team Creative Performance

Purpose

This study aims at testing the mediating role of team reflexivity in the relationships between team learning, performance-prove, and performance-avoid goal orientations and team creative performance and assessing the relative importance of the three types of team goal orientation in team reflexivity and creative performance.

Methodology

We conducted Study 1 on 68 student teams by using a two-wave time-lagged design. In Study 2, we carried out a cross-sectional field study on 108 intact work teams in diverse Korean companies.

Findings

Team learning goal orientation was significantly associated with team creative performance. While team learning and performance-prove goal orientations were equally influential in predicting team reflexivity, team performance-avoid goal orientation had no relationship with team reflexivity and creative performance. Team reflexivity mediated the relationships between team learning and performance-prove goal orientations and team creative performance.

Implications

By revealing that team learning and performance-prove goal orientations can contribute to team creative performance through the facilitation of team reflective process, this study provides practitioners with insight into critical antecedents and team process that are conducive to the creative performance of work teams.

Originality/Value

This is one of the first studies to explore a mediating mechanism between team goal orientation and creative performance. This study attends to the role of team reflexivity as a key team-regulatory process that underlies the relationship between team goal orientation and team performance. Furthermore, the use of multiple studies in different contexts strengthens the robustness of the study findings.

     

A path analysis of stress appraisals, emotions, coping, and performance satisfaction among athletes

Objectives

In this study we examined athletes’ stress appraisals, emotions, coping, and performance satisfaction ratings using a path analysis model. This is the first study to explore all of these constructs in a single study and provides a more holistic examination of the overall stressful experience that athletes encounter.

Design

Cross-sectional.

Methods

Participants were 557 athletes, aged between 18 and 64 years (M age = 22.28 years, SD = 5.72), who completed a pre-competition measure of stress appraisals and emotions. Participants also completed a coping questionnaire and a subjective performance measure after competing, with regards to how they coped during competition and how satisfied they were with their performance.

Results

Path analysis revealed that appraisals of uncontrollable-by-self, stressfulness, and centrality were positively associated with the relational meaning threat appraisals. Threat appraisals were associated with unpleasant emotions, prior to competition, and pre-ceded distraction- and disengagement-oriented coping. The pre-competition appraisals of controllable-by-self, centrality, controllable-by-others, and stressfulness were associated with challenge relational meanings, which in turn were linked to task-oriented coping during competition. Task-oriented coping was positively related to superior subjective performance.

Conclusions

Our findings support the notion that stress appraisals, emotions, and coping are highly related constructs that are also associated with performance satisfaction.     

Colour perception changes with basic colour word comprehension

Recent work has investigated the origin of infant colour categories, showing pre-linguistic infants categorise colour even in the absence of colour words. These infant categories are similar but not identical to adult categories, giving rise to an important question about how infant colour perception changes with the learning of colour words. Here we present two novel paradigms in which 12- and 19-month-old participants learning English as their first language were assessed on their perception of colour, while data on their colour word comprehension were also collected. Results indicate that participants' perception of colours close to the colour category boundaries dramatically change after colour word learning. The results highlight the shift made from infant colour categories to adult-like linguistically mediated colour categories that accompanies colour word learning.

Research Highlights

• We aimed to test whether colour perception is linguistically mediated in infants.
• We used novel eye-tracking and pupillometry paradigms to test infant colour perception either side of learning colour words.
• Infants' discrimination of colour changes after learning colour words, suggesting a shift due to colour word learning.
• A shift from pre-linguistic colour representation to linguistically mediated colour representation is discussed.

     

Exploring the Effects of Job Autonomy on Engagement and Creativity: The Moderating Role of Performance Pressure and Learning Goal Orientation

Purpose

The 21st century work environment calls for team members to be more engaged in their work and exhibit more creativity in completing their job tasks. The purpose of this study was to examine whether team performance pressure and individual goal orientation would moderate the relationships between individual autonomy in teams and individual engagement and creativity.

Design/Methodology/Approach

A sample consisting of 209 team members and 45 team managers from 45 work teams in 14 companies completed survey measures. To test our hypotheses, we used multilevel modeling with random intercepts and slopes because the individual-level data were nested within the team-level data.

Findings

Hierarchical linear modeling showed that team-level performance pressure attenuated the positive relations between job autonomy and three dimensions of engagement. There were also 3-way interactions between job autonomy, psychological performance pressure, and learning goal orientation in predicting three dimensions of engagement and creativity.

Implications

This study highlights the importance of exploring the moderating effect of team-level task characteristics and individual differences on the relationships between job autonomy and individual engagement and creativity. Organizations need to carefully consider both individual learning goals and performance pressure when empowering team members with job autonomy.

Originality/Value

This is one of the first studies to explore the association between individual job autonomy in teams and individual outcomes in a contingency model. We first introduced team performance pressure as a moderator of job autonomy and examined the 3-way interaction effects of performance pressure, individual job autonomy, and learning goal orientation.

     

Job Design and the Employee Innovation Process: The Mediating Role of Learning Strategies

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to examine whether employee learning strategies is a mechanism through which job design affects the employee innovation process. In particular, we test whether work-based learning strategies mediate the relationship between job design characteristics (job control and problem demand) and key components of the innovation process (idea generation, idea promotion, and idea implementation).

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were collected from a survey of 327 employees in a UK manufacturing organization.

Findings

Structural equation modeling confirmed the mediating role of learning strategies in the relationship between job design and idea generation. The effects of job control on idea generation were mediated by work-based learning strategies and the effects of problem demand on idea generation were partially mediated by work-based learning strategies. Problem demand also had a direct relationship with idea generation and idea promotion. The findings provide support for the general idea that learning is a mechanism thorough which job design affects outcomes.

Implications

The results of the study show practitioners that creating jobs with high control or high problem demand can help to promote the employee innovation process; and that this is partly due to the role that such jobs play in stimulating the use of learning strategies at work.

Originality/Value

This article develops and tests a new theoretical model that explains how learning is a route through which job design influences employee innovation.     

Goal contents,motivation, psychological need satisfaction,well-being and physical activity: A test of self-determination theory over 6 months

ObjectivesThis investigation examined how Goal Contents Theory, Organismic Integration Theory, and Basic Psychological Needs Theory collectively explain well-being and behavioral outcomes related to physical activity over 6 months. Specifically we examined a model whereby changes in relative intrinsic goal contents → changes in motivation → changes in psychological need satisfaction → well-being and physical activity.Methods and designParticipants were 203 adults from the general population (68.00% female; M_age = 32.57 years, SD = 15.73). Two identical questionnaire packages containing assessments of goal contents, motivational regulations, basic psychological need satisfaction, indicators of well-being and physical activity behavior, separated by six months were given to participants. Residualized change scores were analyzed with path analysis.ResultsResults supported the hypothesized sequence of SDT. Changes in psychological need satisfaction mediated the relationship between changes in autonomous motivation and well-being. A more complex pattern of results emerged for the indirect effects of motivation and psychological need satisfaction between relative intrinsic goals → well-being. Changes in competence satisfaction mediated the relationship between autonomous motivation and physical activity behavior. Moreover, changes in autonomous motivation through competence satisfaction mediated the relationship between relative intrinsic goals and physical activity.ConclusionsFindings support a model based on 3 mini-theories of SDT and suggest that psychological need fulfillment during physical activity could be a key mechanism that facilitates increased well-being and behavior. Findings also highlight the importance of examining competence, autonomy, and relatedness independently (rather than as a composite).     

Altering the Effects of Work and Family Conflict on Exhaustion: Telework During Traditional and Nontraditional Work Hours

Purpose

The current study investigates the impact of time and strain-based work-to-family conflict (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC) on exhaustion, by considering the moderating effect of telework conducted during traditional and non-traditional work hours.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were obtained from professionals in a large computer company using survey methodology (N?=?316).

Findings

Results from this study suggest that time and strain-based WFC and FWC were associated with more exhaustion, and that exhaustion associated with high WFC was worse for individuals with more extensive telework during traditional and non-traditional work hours.

Implications

This study provides managers with findings to more carefully design telework programs, showing evidence that the adverse impact of WFC/FWC on exhaustion may depend on the type of telework and level of conflict experienced. This suggests that managers may need to be more aware of the full range of characteristics which encapsulate the teleworker??s work practices before making decisions about how telework is implemented.

Originality/Value

By differentiating the timing of telework and its role on the WFC/FWC??exhaustion relationship, this study delves deeper into the contingent nature of telework and suggests that the extent of telework conducted during traditional and nontraditional work hours may play an influential role. In addition, these considerations are investigated in light of the bi-directional time-based and strain-based nature of WFC and FWC, helping to unravel some of telework??s complexities.     

Real Men Don’t Make Mistakes: Investigating the Effects of Leader Gender, Error Type, and the Occupational Context on Leader Error Perceptions

Purpose

Despite the fact that leaders make mistakes, little attention has been paid to the effects of errors on subordinate perceptions. This study investigated the influence of errors on perceptions of leader competence, effectiveness, and desire to work for the leader. It also examined the effects of gendered expectations on perceptions of male and female leader errors by investigating the interactions that occur between the leader’s gender, the type of error, and the occupational context.

Design/Methodology

A sample of 284 undergraduates read a series of fictional employee emails describing a leader’s behavior and responded to several measures while envisioning themselves as subordinates of the leader.

Findings

Results suggested task and relationship errors exert damaging and differential effects on perceptions of leader task and relationship competence, respectively, and equally damage desire to work for the leader. Male leaders were perceived as less task and relationship competent, desirable to work for, and effective than female leaders for committing errors in a masculinized domain.

Implications

This study suggests leader errors matter, and that current leadership models ought to be expanded to account more clearly for them. Moreover, it offers insight into the role of gendered expectations in determining perceptions of male and female leader errors.

Originality/Value

This study is one of the first to empirically examine leader error perceptions and the effects of gender stereotypes on these perceptions. It represents a step toward understanding evaluations of male and female leaders, not when they succeed, but when they make mistakes.     

“I'm an ogre so I'm very hungry!” “I'm assistant ogre”: The Social Function of Sibling Imitation in Early Childhood

Siblings' imitative behaviors were investigated in 39 middle‐class dyads during six 90‐min home sessions at both Time 1 (M age: older sibling = 4.4 years; younger sibling = 2.4 years) and Time 2 (2 years later). Although younger siblings imitated most often at T1 and T2, older siblings' imitation increased proportionally over time in comparison to younger siblings. Findings highlight the affiliative nature of imitation that occurred during reciprocal play interactions, via positive responses, and the content of the imitation. Finally, age was controlled by comparing first‐born siblings aged 4 at T1 to second‐born siblings aged 4 at T2. Findings demonstrated that sibling imitation had distinct characteristics despite the age match and partner effects. Sibling imitation is a dynamic, interactive social behavior and may be a powerful source of learning for young children.

Highlights

• The role of sibling imitation in ongoing play in early childhood is highlighted.
• Sibling imitation is a dynamic and affiliative behavior that promotes interaction during play.
• Naturalistic observations of sibling imitation document that it is a powerful source of learning for young children.

     

Learning on Work Placement: The Narrative Development of Social Competence

This paper explores the development of social competence by examining examples of research interviews conducted with 35 British undergraduate students on work placements. Work placement schemes are a characteristic of contemporary higher education, which is particularly geared towards students’ development of employability and transferable skills. Among these skills is that of social competence which is often taken for granted as emerging from normative adult developmental processes. Research on social competence is mostly confined to developmental psychology and focused on studying children and adolescents in their social settings. Moreover, the methodology of social competence is often developed from a child-developmental perspective, neglecting the situation-specific development beyond childhood. The paper argues that social competence is examinable as situated discursive practice and that it is essential to understanding career development. Membership categorisation analysis identifies the participant’s fluid positioning in narrating experiences of work and university. Lastly the paper addresses implications for theories of development and learning and considers ways in which this study can be expanded in the future.

The Latent Change Score Model: A More Flexible Approach to Modeling Time in Self-Regulated Learning

Purpose

This research advances understanding of empirical time modeling techniques in self-regulated learning research. We intuitively explain several such methods by situating their use in the extant literature. Further, we note key statistical and inferential assumptions of each method while making clear the inferential consequences of inattention to such assumptions.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Using a population model derived from a recent large-scale review of the training and work learning literature, we employ a Monte Carlo simulation fitting six variations of linear mixed models, seven variations of latent common factor models, and a single latent change score model to 1500 simulated datasets.

Findings

The latent change score model outperformed all six of the linear mixed models and all seven of the latent common factor models with respect to (1) estimation precision of the average learner improvement, (2) correctly rejecting a false null hypothesis about such average improvement, and (3) correctly failing to reject true null hypothesis about between-learner differences (i.e., random slopes) in average improvement.

Implications

The latent change score model is a more flexible method of modeling time in self-regulated learning research, particularly for learner processes consistent with twenty-first-century workplaces. Consequently, defaulting to linear mixed or latent common factor modeling methods may have adverse inferential consequences for better understanding self-regulated learning in twenty-first-century work.

Originality/Value

Ours is the first study to critically, rigorously, and empirically evaluate self-regulated learning modeling methods and to provide a more flexible alternative consistent with modern self-regulated learning knowledge.

     

Do individual differences in need strength moderate the relations between basic psychological need satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior?

An important theoretical debate in the literature on psychological needs concerns the potential moderating role of individuals’ need strength in the effects of basic psychological need satisfaction. The present study adds to the relatively small literature with inconsistent findings by examining whether the relations between work-related basic psychological need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and organizational citizenship behavior (i.e., constructive voluntary job performance) are enhanced when employees’ work-specific explicit need strength increases. Survey data from two samples of employees in the United States (N = 353; M_Age = 38.13) and in the Netherlands (N = 298; M_Age = 44.57) consistently showed that across the need domains, need satisfaction was positively associated with organizational citizenship behavior through work engagement. However, we only found minor evidence for a moderating role of need strength. These findings largely endorse core self-determination theory assertions, as they underscore the relevance of employees’ psychological need satisfaction rather than fit between high psychological need satisfaction and high need strength in the workplace.

     

School Competence among Adolescents in Low-Income Families: Does Parenting Style Matter?

In the present study, we investigated parenting styles and self-perceived school competence among low-income adolescents in Norway. The purpose of the study was threefold: (1) to identify differences, if any, in self-perceived school competence between low-income ethnic Norwegians and low-income ethnic minorities; (2) to determine differences, if any, in the perception of parenting styles between the groups; and (3) to determine if parenting styles predict self-perceived school competence in the two groups. The sample consisted of 253 adolescents 12–18 years of age; 130 adolescents were ethnic Norwegians, and 123 were from ethnic minorities. Self-perceived school competence was measured using the Scholastic Competence subscale of Harter’s Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents. Perception of parenting style was measured with the following three scales: support, monitoring and neglect. An independent-samples t-test revealed that ethnic minorities reported higher levels of self-perceived school competence than did ethnic Norwegians. No significant difference between the groups in their perception of parenting styles was observed. Support and monitoring were positively correlated with school competence, whereas neglect was negatively correlated with school competence. When all three parenting styles were entered separately into standard multiple regression analyses for the two groups, a high degree of perceived neglect significantly predicted low self-perceived school competence in both groups. This finding indicates how schools and policy makers can explore the types of support that families may need to adopt better upbringing styles.